Base newspaper may get a new publisher

The North County Times Thursday apparently lost its bid to renew
its contract as publisher of The Scout, the base newspaper at Camp
Pendleton, according to NCT Publisher Dick High.

The military weekly has been published by the North County Times
or its predecessor, South Coast Newspapers, since 1980. South Coast
Newspapers published the Blade-Tribune and later the Blade-Citizen
of Oceanside.

The apparent winning bid to take over The Scout was made by Tom
Missett, formerly associate publisher of the North County Times
and, before December 1995, publisher of the Blade-Citizen. The
Blade-Citizen and the Times-Advocate of Escondido were merged to
form the North County Times.

If the deal goes through, Missett will take control of The Scout
on Feb. 1.

"For the last three years in a row, The Scout won the Jefferson
Prize, an award given to the best U.S. military base newspaper in
the world," said North County Times Publisher Dick High.

"I thought that we put out a pretty good newspaper for the
Marines -- I'm very proud of the product we put out for them," he
said. "It is an odd decision by the military, because Brian LaMay,
Dutch Deutschmann, Wayne Short and Rich Miron, our crew at The
Scout, have done such a great job."

The Scout operated under a so-called civilian enterprise
contract, which called for the Marine Corps to pay nothing to the
North County Times. Revenue from advertising sales paid for North
County Times staff working for The Scout, as well as for printing
and distribution. The Marine Corps assigned a number of Marines to
work as writers for The Scout through the years.

Missett declined to comment on the report that he had won the
contract, which was scheduled to be signed this morning.

High commented, however, that he expects Missett "to do a good
job of it -- he's supportive of the military."

He also said that the North County Times, for which The Scout
has been an important connection to the Marines at Camp Pendleton,
will continue to cover the base and its Marines closely.

"As a financial issue, the revenue from The Scout was not
significant -- it was mostly a way we could support the Marines. It
represents perhaps a little over 1 percent of our revenue," he
said.

High noted that, since the beginning of the Iraq war, The
Scout's revenues have declined because of extended deployments.